CEC Semester Fifteen 2019
Circuit Design on a Budget
Charles J. Lord -
February 25,
2019
Introduction to EDA and the tools
In our first Day, we will briefly look at the design process from concept to PCB and will introduce our class project. We will look at the process for getting and installing each of the tools on our computers. We will then set our goal -- getting a finished PCB manufactured from our week's work.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
February 26,
2019
Starting at the Beginning
In our second class we will establish the parameters for our finished circuit. Based on the specifications that we laid out in the first class, we will start our component selection, checking our supplier for availability and deciding on our packaging. We will compare the packaging selections to our established board area to confirm fit before we move forward.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
February 27,
2019
Creating our Schematic
In our third class we will use the parts we selected to create the circuit for our product. Using the symbols from our selected bill of materials (BOM), we will lay out the schematic for our product. We will show the steps for both EDA tools (CircuitStudio and KiCad) and compare the process for both.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
February 28,
2019
Creating our PCB Layout
Now that we have our schematic completed, we will move the netlist in both tools to the layout editor and create our PCB. We will quickly touch on the placement, routing, and auto-routing steps for each tool. At the end of this penultimate class, we will have a full set of gerber drawings to send off to our PCB manufacturer.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
March 1,
2019
Our Finished Board
In our final class, we will compare our finished board to the criteria we set forth and also compare the steps we had to take and differences for our two EDA tools, as well as for Altium Designer. We will look at the pros and cons of our different tools and be ready to choose our tools for our next project.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Instructor
Charles J. Lord